Savannah Thomas: I never thought I would be ashamed of having my name associated with my former high school; up until today. Considering the recent events of cultural appropriation, racism, and the blatant disregard of the issue by staff I feel it is my obligation to share my story as a Black woman about what really goes on behind the closed doors of Fredericton High.
Savannah Thomas: “As I sat around the table listening to my Black friends talk about the importance of Emancipation Day, I couldn’t help but feel ignorant. Embarrassment flooded over me when I realized that as a Black woman I had no idea what this day meant and why it was so important to our community.”
June 4th marks the one year anniversary of the death of Chantel Moore, who was killed at the hands of an Edmundston, NB police officer. Elizabeth Goodridge reflects on Chantel’s death and what it tells us about the world we live in.
John McCracken on the PC’s provincial election win in New Brunswick: “You could practically hear the cheering from the corporate head office of Irving Oil at 10 King Square South in Saint John, New Brunswick.”
Annie Bernard Daisley: “You have treated our lives as though we are disposable, that we do not matter. Our lives come and go to you. We are just a number. You took from us and you still do. You do it quietly and secretly. You hide behind inquiries, you hide behind the police force, you hide behind a “knife”, you hide your hate. But we see and feel it.”
I don’t often ask for help for an individual on this site, but I make an exception in this case involving my old friend Annie Clair who is trying to help her daughter deal with addiction.
Thandiwe McCarthy: “Who defines Blackness? It seemed everyone except my family in Woodstock was white and all those people I interacted with told me I was no different from them. So what makes me Black if the people in my life say it doesn’t matter?”
“What could be more racist than not even acknowledging one of the founding groups in your region? asks Thandiwe McCarthy, writing about his home province of New Brunswick. “We have no place to show our art, no building dedicated to our history, no representation at our universities, no representation in our news, none in our government. At every single level In New Brunswick being Black has been pushed into the shadows, while we have been here contributing to society for centuries.”
Some 700 Mi’kmaq people and allies came to the Grand Parade in downtown Halifax for a solemn and moving gathering and healing walk in memory of Chantel Moore. Chantel is the 26 year old mother from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation killed by a police officer early in the morning of June 4th, in Edmunston, New Brunswick, during what was supposed to be a wellness check.
Thandiwe McCarthy on going to school while Black in New Brunswick. “No one ever explained anything to me, I was always ordered. I never got the chance to be a student because all the teachers viewed me as a threat.”